Regensburg 2016 – scientific programme

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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 11: Atmosphere - Trace Gases

UP 11.1: Invited Talk

Thursday, March 10, 2016, 10:00–10:30, H41

Towards disentangling natural and anthropogenic CO2 and CH4 fluxes using space based measurements of XCO2 and XCH4 — •Heinrich Bovensmann, Michael Buchwitz, Konstantin Gerilowski, Sven Krautwurst, Thomas Krings, Maximilian Rauter, Oliver Schneising, Jens Heymann, and John P. Burrows — Institut für Umweltphysik, Universität Bremen

The concentrations of CO2 and CH4 in the atmosphere are affected directly by anthropogenic activity (fossil fuel combustion, biomass burning, agriculture and land usage change) and natural phenomena. Adequate knowledge of the sources and sinks of both gases, as well as the related feedbacks is a pre-requisite for the reliable prediction and management of the future climate of our planet. In spite of the recognised importance of this issue, our current understanding about sources and sinks of the greenhouse gases CO2 and CH4 is still inadequate. During the last years, data from SCIAMACHY on ENVISAT as well as from GOSAT have demonstrated that atmospheric columns of CO2 and CH4 provide unique information about changes in greenhouse gas fluxes and its linkage with climate feedbacks, despite some limitations in data coverage and quality. In parallel airborne remote sensing of XCO2 and XCH4 make substantial progress in demonstrating that emissions from strong local point sources can be derived from such measurements. The talk will present recent progress made in greenhouse gas research using airborne and satellite data of CO2 and CH4 and will give an outlook on future greenhouse gas satellite missions like the CarbonSat concept.